On October 28, at the experience exchange meeting of the “Excellent Engineer Education Training Program†organized by Shanghai Jiaotong University, the author was invited to share the needs of engineers in the intelligent era as a corporate representative. The following is based on the report of the meeting. This outstanding engineer share is in the context of the “new engineering†concept. The new engineering section can be understood as the “excellent engineer 2.0†version. The emphasis on education is evident from the national driving force. The new engineering department is precisely for the purpose of intelligent manufacturing of national strategies. The launch of the implementation aims to provide high-quality talents for the smart era.
The company's pain points - if you are thirsty
Demand for talent is actually urgent at all times, but it has encountered a very big dilemma.
(1) Need a lot of excellent automation experts
Although a large amount of remarks tend to be Internet+, from an industrial point of view, automation of equipment and manufacturing are actually first of all automated. Even artificial intelligence ultimately depends on the distributed execution of automated systems, including motion control. High-precision positioning and synchronization, robot and CNC synchronization, etc., on the other hand, IT system data is also directly from the automated system of on-site data acquisition.
Therefore, the needs of automation experts are still numerous for the industry, not because the intelligent upgrade will reduce the demand for automated personnel, but on the other hand, automation is also extending to IT, which is an obvious trend.
(2) Talent training requires a lot of financial and time costs
Although there are more and more university students today, the pressure on talents is greater than in the past. This is a common feeling of enterprises because the reality that the disconnect between universities and industries has caused enterprises to spend huge costs to cultivate talents. For those industries that make quick money, they are reluctant to spend time and energy to cultivate talents.
(3) Cannot produce benefits for the company immediately
Normally, it takes an average of 2 years for a graduate to reach a company to bring benefits to the company. Before that, training and instruction are costs. However, if such a huge cost is borne by the company, it will not be economical.
(4) loss caused by loss of personnel
Compared with finance, real estate, IT, and communications, the manufacturing industry, including the automation industry, is indeed incomparable in terms of its income level. This has led to the shift of university majors to higher-income industries, and many turnovers in the automation industry have also come. In the area of ​​higher income, the loss of manufacturing personnel is very large, and for enterprises, it is also extremely costly.
Future Intelligent Engineers' Capability Development Needs
In fact, many times, we focus on the expertise of engineers and ignore the more complex environment that engineers face in the enterprise, and the need for operational efficiency with very high pressure, including multiple departments at work. The need for collaboration, complex application scenarios, and the skills that engineers need to master are far from being covered by technical knowledge.
Figure 2 Distribution of importance of engineers' capabilities in the smart era
Figure 2 is an engineer’s ability requirement for the Smart Age that failed to find sources in many educational reports (this figure is quoted in the 2017 STEMandtheFutureWorkforce report of the Victorian Government Department of Education and Training). We can see active learning, Critical thinking, ability to solve complex problems, ability to solve creative problems, and interpersonal skills will become even more important in the future.
Figure 3 Survey of Capability Requirements for Automation Industry Engineers
This research was done in the WeChat circle of friends before the meeting. However, after deep thinking, we found that complex problem solving ability and system thinking can be merged. Communication expression and team collaboration actually have a great relationship, so we will have this One conclusion:
(1) Thinking ability is more than professional knowledge itself
(2) Communication and collaboration are more important than professional knowledge itself
These two points of view are to look at the ability of an engineer from the perspective of the enterprise. If the university stage can effectively train students' ability in system thinking and communication expression, it is naturally a good thing for the enterprise.
Engineer's job analysis and competency requirements
To analyze the development of the capabilities of engineers, it is necessary to analyze their work and the task requirements of the era of smart manufacturing.
1, engineer work panorama
Figure 4: An overview of the work of automation engineers
Figure 4 shows the author's communication with Zhou Jing, the manager of the company's technical support and training department, and a panoramic description of the work of the automation engineer:
(1) Tool-based development
Many people will have a detailed confusion, often referring to science and engineering as science. In fact science is science and engineering is engineering. The two are still different. Engineers mainly use tools to accomplish tasks. Therefore, various Development platforms (such as AutomationStudio, Portal), simulation software (MATLAB/Simulin, MapSim), and selection tools (ServoSoft), including SQL databases and Hadoop learning software at the IT level, are tools.
However, tools are only tools and the most important thing is to solve problems.
(2) Engineering
Engineering includes several processes such as system requirements analysis, configuration selection, software module partitioning, software package testing, software and hardware debugging, and serialization (application standardization). Different tools can be used to complete tasks in different stages.
(3) KPI
For engineers, it is necessary to ensure the main target management tasks of the project during the entire process: project quality, time schedule control, and standardization and standardization of documents.
(4) Mission objectives
Providing customers with better control accuracy means higher product quality, quick change orders represent an increase in production efficiency, and a shorter project cycle means faster time-to-market (market opportunities for customers to grab faster), including ease of use The design will strengthen the tasks related to production operations in the smart era, including the decline of production and operation costs brought about by predictive maintenance. Energy optimization will reduce the cost of individual products, and quality forecasting and optimization will improve product quality.
2, communication interconnection
Figure 5 Industrial interconnect level for the intelligent manufacturing era
The technology currently spoken in universities is already lagging behind the industrial reality. For example, many stay in the field bus phase, and the industry has generally adopted real-time Ethernet technologies such as POWERlink, Profinet, SERCOSIII, and EtherCAT. Including OPCUA has become the consensus of the industry. All automation companies have developed and applied OPC UA technology to realize the integration of production lines and the interconnection of IT systems. Including the TSN technology will soon be put into operation, the new technology has laid the foundation for the construction of IIoT, CPS, although we say that in the future to improve IT capabilities, but the current university course is still based on RS485, CAN technology - even if the theoretical basis, In fact, there have been major changes, especially in the IT field.
3, the extension of the mechanical field
Smart manufacturing must be related to equipment and production lines. The introduction of linear delivery systems such as SuperTrak, iTrak, and XTS also marks a closer integration of motion control technology with machinery. SuperTrak is a long stator linear drive technology. , It is a typical mechanical, electrical drive, measurement technology in one system, can make the production system to achieve maximum flexibility, is the most advanced technology in the future of the smart era, and many of the university's motion control courses are only providing variable frequency The control of the device - the frequency converter is more of a transmission function, and the real realization of "intelligence" is to facilitate the realization of such technologies as servo control, robots, and linear conveyor systems.
Fig. 6 Electromechanical soft integration represented by SuperTrak technology
4, software engineering requirements
In the previous survey, we also found that the need for "software engineering" in the expansion of automation engineers' future knowledge structure is most urgent. This is not an exaggeration. Automation is far from the era of "order logic" control in the past. Especially in the era of IT and OT integration.
Figure 7 Software becomes the focus of automation in the future
Figure 7 shows the definition of software value drawn by the author in 2015. It is from B&R's experience in project application integration in various fields. Including the following explanations:
(1) Integrated Development Platform
In fact, to achieve integration, it must be built on a fully-integrated development platform to enable seamless integration of distributed objects (PLC, HMI, Motion) through the software of the software platform. There is no such highly integrated development platform in China. Software, which is also the goal set by China Manufacturing 2025, includes the basic RTOS, application platform, and industry library. Some of Automation Studio, Portal, Logix, TwinCAT are typical integrated development platforms.
(2) Software Engineering Capabilities
This is the only way that automation industry solutions provide value to customers. Through software components and multiplexing technologies, it can reduce development time for itself and allow customers to reduce R&D cycles and R&D costs.
(3) Software Defined Intelligence
The industries faced by automation have their special attributes. Therefore, each industry's process Know-How can be encapsulated by software, such as B&R's color registration, robot inertia feedforward, anti-rolling algorithm, tension library, etc. Accumulated decades of experience in the development of industry characteristics.
(4) Open software integration
The integration of IT and OT in an intelligent era requires PLCs, industrial PCs, and Panel PCs to have the ability to interconnect with IT, including OPCUA interfaces, IE browser access, MATLAB/Simulin interfaces, and EPLAN.
(5) Standard Software Integration
PLCopen is the best channel to achieve software standardization. PLCopen's Peng Yu teacher, Yan Yi teacher and Mechatronics Association have been committed to PLCopen applications in the automation industry, including ABB, SIEMENS and other mainstream automation vendors are supporters of PLCopen.
(6) Software Services
Software has become the key to the future profitability of the automation industry. This is also the consensus of the industry. In the future, with the intervention of IT, the cost of hardware will be greatly reduced, while the software is more valuable. It reflects the Know-How package and production. Flexibility and intelligence will make it play a more important role, and the automation industry has gradually become a software industry.
Engineer Capability Model Analysis
Based on the understanding of the industry and the needs of the engineer's capabilities, an engineer's capability model with reference to the three-dimensional architecture of RAMI4.0 is drawn.
Figure 8 Engineer's Ability Model (author's drawing)
Fig. 8 is a discussion with Zhou Jing on the model of the engineer's ability. We would like to perform the panoramic modeling based on three levels of business process, plant level, and capability requirements—refer to the three-dimensional model of RAMI 4.0.
(1) The ability of each stage of the workflow
In the system's conceptual design, development (configuration selection/programming/simulation), testing (software/hardware/hardware/field testing), and production and maintenance, the ability requirements for engineers will be different.
(2) Business-level capacity needs
In the era of intelligence, in addition to automation capabilities, it also includes information integration and intelligent optimization decisions. In terms of panoramic views, the larger system learning model also belongs to the control category, namely, dynamic optimization and path design in a dynamic environment.
(3) Capability requirement level
Tools: For engineers, tools are the most basic capabilities, including the use of basic software tools, software tools such as Office, Visio, and AutoCAD, as well as the use of basic tools such as oscilloscopes and multimeters.
Methods: Modeling methods (such as V-Mode development), working methods such as 5W2H - how to describe one thing clearly is also a kind of ability, just like the three narrative elements taught in primary school - people, places, events. This also includes a series of methods such as software variable naming and version control to support engineers to manage projects effectively.
Principles: The principles of the design system, such as manual and automatic compatibility and user-friendly principles, are principles that engineers need to master.
Philosophy: The concept layer, such as the modular design concept "high cohesion, low coupling", the idea belongs to the ideological level and belongs to the conceptual skills of the higher level of view of the problem.
Summary: In the future, engineers in the field of automation need more systematic thinking, creative problem solving skills, and good communication and expression. Knowledge is also one of the tools for us to complete our tasks.
From the perspective of knowledge structure, engineers need to enhance knowledge expansion in software engineering, computer network interconnection, and intelligent algorithms.
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